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Dispute Basics

How to get your free credit reports

6 min read · General education, not legal advice

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You cannot dispute an error you have not seen. The first step in checking your credit is getting your reports, and the good news is that you should not have to pay for them. The confusing part is that many websites use the word "free" while trying to sell you something. This guide explains where the genuinely free reports come from, how to order them and what to do once you have them.

The one official site: AnnualCreditReport.com

Federal law requires each of the three nationwide credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, to give you a free copy of your file at least once every 12 months when you ask through a single, centralized source. That source is AnnualCreditReport.com.

Beyond what the law requires, the bureaus now let you check your reports from each of them once a week for free through the same site. Both the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) point people to AnnualCreditReport.com for this. You can choose one bureau, two or all three each time you order.

The FTC's advice is simple: go through AnnualCreditReport.com rather than contacting the three bureaus individually for your free reports.

Three ways to order

Online

Go to AnnualCreditReport.com and follow the request steps. This is the fastest way, and you can usually view your reports straight away and save them as PDFs.

By phone

Call (877) 322-8228. This is the number the FTC and the CFPB publish for the centralized request service.

By mail

Download the Annual Credit Report Request Form from the official site, fill it in and mail it to: Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281. For phone and mail requests, the law gives the bureaus 15 days from receiving your request to provide the report, so allow for that plus mailing time.

What you will need

To protect your file, the bureaus need to confirm that you are you. The FTC says to be ready to give your name, address, Social Security number and date of birth. You may also be asked questions that only you should know the answer to, such as the amount of a monthly loan payment or the name of a lender.

If you get a question wrong or the system cannot verify you online, you are not stuck. Each bureau offers other ways to request your report, and phone or mail requests through the centralized service are still available.

Watch out for lookalike sites and scam messages

A search for "free credit report" turns up plenty of results that are not the official site. The CFPB warns that some websites claiming to offer free reports require you to buy other products first, and others give you a report and then charge you for a service you have to remember to cancel. A few habits keep you safe:

  • Type the address yourself. Enter annualcreditreport.com directly in your browser instead of clicking an ad or a search result.
  • Ignore unexpected emails. The FTC says AnnualCreditReport.com and the credit bureaus will not email you asking for your Social Security number. If a message like that arrives, do not reply or click on its links; it is probably a scam.
  • Be wary of payment requests. If a site asks for card details before showing you a "free" report, treat that as a warning sign and go back to the official site.

Other situations where you can get a free report

Beyond the weekly reports, the FCRA gives you the right to an additional free report in several situations. According to the FTC and the CFPB, these include when:

  • You were turned down or got worse terms because of your credit report. If a company takes "adverse action" against you based on a credit report, such as denying an application, you have a right to a free report from the bureau named in the notice. You must ask for it within 60 days of getting the notice.
  • You are unemployed and plan to look for a job within 60 days.
  • You receive public welfare assistance.
  • Your report is inaccurate because of fraud, including identity theft.
  • You have a fraud alert on your file. The CFPB notes that you may request two free copies for an extended fraud alert.

Some states also have their own laws giving residents additional free reports.

What about specialty reporting companies?

Equifax, Experian and TransUnion are not the only companies that keep files on consumers. Specialty consumer reporting companies collect information for particular purposes, such as rental history, checking account history, insurance claims or employment screening. The CFPB keeps a list of these companies and says most of them provide a report for free every 12 months. If you have been turned down for an apartment or a bank account, a specialty report may be where the problem sits, and the same dispute rights generally apply.

Why it is worth pulling all three reports at once

Because each bureau keeps its own file, the three reports can differ. A creditor may report to one bureau and not the others, or an update may reach one bureau before another. Reading the three together is the quickest way to spot information that is missing, duplicated or different between them.

With weekly access, there is no longer much reason to spread your reports out across the year. A practical routine is:

  1. Pull all three reports on the same day.
  2. Save each one as a PDF and print a copy you can mark up. Write the date at the top.
  3. Read them side by side, using our guide to reading your credit report line by line.
  4. Make a list of anything that looks wrong, noting which bureau or bureaus show it.
  5. Pull fresh copies after any dispute is finished to check that changes were made.

A note on timing if you plan to dispute

Normally a credit bureau has 30 days from receiving your dispute to finish its reinvestigation. The FCRA sets a longer limit, 45 days, for a dispute that follows the free annual disclosure you request through the centralized source. Because the free reports you order from AnnualCreditReport.com come through that source, it is sensible to plan for up to 45 days rather than 30. Our article on what happens after you dispute explains the full timeline.

Credit reports are not credit scores

The free reports from AnnualCreditReport.com show what is in your file. They are not the same as a credit score. A score is calculated from the information in your report, which is why checking the report comes first. If you want a score, you can ask a bureau for one separately, and a fee may apply, or check whether a bank or card you already have shows one.

Keep your reports safe

Your credit reports contain sensitive personal information. Store the PDFs somewhere private, avoid printing them on shared or public printers, and shred old paper copies when you no longer need them. When you send a copy of a report as part of a dispute, mark up only the relevant page and send a copy, never your only original.

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